Only about 2 in 10 Americans believe K–12 schools are doing a good or excellent job teaching students critical thinking, according to new Gallup research.
These examples of critical thinking for students show how the skill extends far beyond an academic assignment or test. Students use critical thinking whenever they must question an assumption, evaluate evidence, consider another perspective, anticipate consequences, or decide what to do next.
They use it when everyone around them agrees—but something does not feel right. When a proposed solution could create another problem. When a confident answer lacks evidence. When new information challenges their first impression. And when a group chat turns cruel and they must decide whether to participate, remain silent, intervene, or ask for help.
These situations may look very different, but they depend on the same essential foundation: the ability to pause, examine what is happening, and make an informed choice.
What does critical thinking involve?
Critical thinking is the ability to examine information, ideas, and situations carefully before reaching a conclusion or taking action.
It can involve:
- Asking questions rather than accepting information at face value
- Separating facts from opinions, assumptions and conclusions
- Looking for relevant and credible evidence
- Considering different perspectives
- Recognizing how emotions and group dynamics may influence a decision
- Anticipating consequences and unintended outcomes
- Revising a judgment when new information becomes available
- Explaining the reasoning behind a conclusion
Critical thinking does not mean questioning everything simply for the sake of disagreement. It means knowing when to pause, what questions to ask, and how to use the answers to reach a thoughtful conclusion.
It also does not live within one subject. Students use critical thinking in math, science, reading, and social studies – but also in friendships, group dynamics, online interactions, and everyday decisions.
The following activities make these often-invisible thinking skills easier for students to see, discuss, and practice.
7 examples of critical thinking for students
The following activities make critical thinking easier for students to see, discuss and practice in academic, social and digital situations.
-
When everyone else agrees
Pose this scenario:
Five students are choosing a topic for a class project. The first student suggests an idea, and three others quickly agree. The fifth student has concerns but assumes the group must be right because everyone else supports it.
Ask students:
- Does agreement make the idea a good one?
- Why might people agree without examining an idea themselves?
- What question could the fifth student ask?
- What could the group do before making its final decision?
Students may point out that people sometimes agree because they want to avoid conflict, do not feel confident speaking up or assume someone else has already thought through the decision.
Encourage students to identify questions the group could ask, such as:
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of this idea?
- What other options should we consider?
- Does anyone have a concern we have not discussed?
- What information do we need before deciding?
The goal is not to teach students to oppose the group automatically. It is to show them that agreement should not replace examination—and that respectfully raising a question can improve a group’s decision.
Critical-thinking skill: Thinking independently and questioning group assumptions.
-
Which question requires more critical thinking?
Pose this scenario:
A school is considering removing all vending machines because some students are choosing snacks instead of eating lunch.
Show students two questions:
- Question A: How many vending machines are in the school?
- Question B: Would removing the vending machines solve the problem—and what evidence, perspectives and possible consequences should the school consider first?
Ask students:
- Which question requires more critical thinking?
- What makes it different?
- What information would you need to answer Question B?
- Can a factual question still be useful even when it does not require much critical thinking?
Question A asks students to retrieve a fact. That fact could be useful, but it does not require them to evaluate the proposed decision.
Question B asks students to examine an assumption: that vending machines are the reason some students are not eating lunch and that removing them would solve the problem. Students must determine what evidence is needed, consider how different people could be affected and anticipate possible outcomes.
They might ask:
- Why are some students choosing snacks instead of lunch?
- What food is available in the cafeteria?
- Are students given enough time to eat?
- How would removing the machines affect students who use them before or after school?
- Could a different solution address the problem more effectively?
Critical thinking often begins with asking a better question. A strong critical-thinking question moves beyond what happened to explore why it happened, what is being assumed, whose perspective may be missing and what could happen next.
Critical-thinking skill: Recognizing the difference between gathering a fact and evaluating a conclusion or proposed solution.
-
When a group chat starts getting meaner
Some examples of critical thinking for students involve social pressure and decisions that unfold quickly.
Pose this scenario:
One student posts an embarrassing photo of a classmate in a group chat. Someone adds a joke. Other students respond with laughing emojis. A student who feels uncomfortable considers adding another emoji so no one thinks they are being overly sensitive.
Ask students:
- How did the behavior of the group influence the individual student?
- Does reacting with an emoji contribute to the situation, even if the student did not post the photo?
- What could happen if everyone assumes someone else will intervene?
- What choices could the student make next?
- When should a trusted adult become involved?
This activity helps students examine how quickly individual choices can become group behavior.
The student did not take or post the photo, but that does not mean their next choice is harmless. A reaction can encourage the person who posted it, make the targeted student feel that more people are participating and signal to others that the behavior is acceptable.
Students can discuss several possible responses: refusing to react, asking for the photo to be removed, checking on the person being targeted, saving evidence, reporting the content or asking a trusted adult for help.
There may not be one appropriate response for every situation. What matters is that students learn to pause and consider the likely effect of each option rather than reacting automatically or following the group.
Critical-thinking skill: Pausing before reacting, recognizing group influence and considering how individual choices affect others.
-
When one solution creates another problem
Pose this scenario:
Students are frequently late to class after lunch. Someone suggests shortening lunch by 10 minutes so students will have more time to reach their classrooms.
Ask students:
- Would this solution address the reason students are late?
- What new problems could it create?
- Who would be affected?
- What information should the school gather before acting?
- What other solutions could address the problem more directly?
At first, the proposal may sound reasonable: If students have more time after lunch, perhaps fewer will be late. But the solution assumes that the length of lunch is causing the problem.
Students should first investigate what is happening. Long cafeteria lines, crowded hallways, distant classrooms, or unclear transition expectations could all contribute to lateness.
Shortening lunch might also create new problems. Students may have less time to eat, socialize, or take a needed break. Cafeteria staff may have less time to serve everyone. Students already waiting in long lines may feel even more rushed.
Invite students to generate alternatives and explain which underlying cause each solution would address. This shows them that a workable solution is not necessarily the best solution—and that solving the wrong problem can create additional ones.
Critical-thinking skill: Anticipating consequences and evaluating whether a solution addresses the real problem.
-
Looking beyond your first impression
Pose this scenario:
A student believes a classmate did not contribute to a group project and should not receive the same grade as everyone else.
Ask students to identify what the student could do next:
- Complain to the teacher immediately.
- Ask the other group members what the classmate contributed.
- Check the shared document or project materials.
- Assume that work only counts if it was seen happening during class.
Then add new information: The student checks and discovers that the classmate completed research and editing outside of class.
Ask students:
- Was the student’s original conclusion reasonable based on what they had seen?
- Why was it important to check before acting?
- Should the student change their position?
- Is changing your mind a sign of weak thinking or careful thinking?
The critical thinking in this activity occurs at two points.
First, the student recognizes that an initial impression may not represent the full story and decides to investigate before acting. They distinguish between what they know, “I did not see this person working,” and what they have concluded, “This person did not contribute.”
Second, the student allows new evidence to change that conclusion. Changing your mind does not necessarily mean your thinking failed. When new evidence changes what you know, revising your judgment is evidence that critical thinking worked.
Critical-thinking skill: Questioning an initial assumption, seeking additional evidence and revising a judgment.
-
When fair does not mean identical
Pose this scenario:
During a written assignment, most students work independently. One student is allowed to use speech-to-text technology. Another receives additional time.
A classmate says, “That isn’t fair. Everyone should have exactly the same rules.”
Ask students:
- What is the difference between treating everyone identically and treating everyone fairly?
- What information might the classmate be missing?
- Does providing different kinds of support automatically create an unfair advantage?
- How can we evaluate fairness without making assumptions about another person?
Students may initially interpret fairness as everyone receiving exactly the same thing. This scenario asks them to consider whether people may need different kinds of support to have a meaningful opportunity to succeed.
It also introduces an important limit: Students rarely have all the information about another person’s circumstances or needs. What appears different from the outside may have a valid purpose that is not theirs to know.
The activity does not require students to reach one universal definition of fairness. Its value comes from asking them to consider context, question what they may be assuming, and examine the issue from more than one perspective.
Critical-thinking skill: Considering context and perspectives before making a judgment about fairness.
-
When a confident answer has weak reasoning
Pose this scenario:
Two students answer the same question.
- Student A: “I know I’m right. It’s obvious.”
- Student B: “I think this is the strongest answer because of these two pieces of evidence, but I would reconsider if we found information that contradicted them.”
Ask students:
- Which answer sounds more confident?
- Which answer demonstrates stronger reasoning?
- Does confidence make a claim more trustworthy?
- What could Student A provide to strengthen the answer?
- What might cause Student B to change their conclusion?
Students may notice that Student A sounds more certain while Student B demonstrates more critical thinking.
Student B offers evidence, explains the basis for the conclusion and remains open to information that could challenge it. That does not make the answer weak or indecisive. It makes the reasoning visible and allows other people to evaluate it.
This distinction is increasingly important in digital spaces, where inaccurate information, and AI-generated content, can be presented fluently and confidently. Students need to understand that the tone of an answer does not prove its accuracy.
A confident claim may still be unsupported. A carefully qualified answer may be more trustworthy because it acknowledges the evidence, uncertainty, and possibility of revision.
Critical-thinking skill: Evaluating the reasoning behind an answer instead of being persuaded by confidence alone.
Critical thinking is part of digital and AI literacy
Many of the most important critical-thinking activities for students now involve decisions made in digital spaces designed to move quickly, attract attention and encourage immediate reactions.
They encounter search results, recommendations, social posts, group messages, altered images, and AI-generated answers. They must decide what to trust, what to share, how to respond, and when to ask for help, often without an adult beside them.
Simply teaching students how to operate a particular platform or AI tool does not prepare them to make those decisions.
Before students are given access to student-facing digital and AI tools, they need a strong foundation in digital and AI literacy built through intentional curriculum, not delegated to another tool.
That foundation must be bigger than any one product or platform. Students need age-appropriate opportunities to understand:
- How digital technologies and AI systems work
- How platforms and automated systems use data
- Why algorithms influence what people see
- Why AI-generated output can be incomplete, biased or wrong
- How technology can support thinking—and when it may replace it
- How their choices in digital spaces can affect themselves and others
Algorithms are an important part of that foundation. They do not exist only inside computers: Students encounter algorithmic processes in familiar routines, decisions, and problem-solving tasks. Explore seven examples of algorithms in everyday life for students to make the concept more concrete.
Students also need practice asking the right questions:
- What information is being collected?
- Why am I seeing this?
- Who created it, and for what purpose?
- What evidence supports this answer?
- What might be missing?
- Who could be affected by what I do next?
- Should I trust, share or act on this?
Those questions help students stay safe in digital spaces. They also help them use technology proficiently and purposefully.
Real proficiency is not simply knowing which button to press. It is understanding enough about technology to make an informed decision about when, why, and how to use it.
Making an invisible skill visible
These examples of critical thinking for students make an abstract skill visible. They allow students to practice identifying assumptions, examining evidence, resisting group pressure, considering different perspectives and evaluating consequences before they face similar decisions in their own lives.
Activities like these make it visible. They allow students to practice identifying assumptions, examining evidence, resisting group pressure, considering different perspectives and evaluating consequences before they face similar decisions in their own lives.
They also reinforce an important message: Critical thinking does not belong to one grade, subject or type of assignment. It appears whenever students must decide what something means, whether a claim deserves their trust, or what they should do next.
The specific situations, platforms, and technologies students encounter will continue to change.
The judgment they need to navigate them should come first.
Want to see how these skills can be developed through a complete, K–8 grade-by-grade approach?
Learn more about Learning.com’s comprehensive K–8 Digital and AI Literacy curriculum.